Still adjustment for pattern fitting for multiple printing machines



Nov. 8, 1932. l. TUTTLE 1,836,922 sTILL ADJUSTMENT FOR PATTERN FITTING POP MULTIPLE PRINTING MACHINES Filed Dec. 18, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Nov. v 8, 1932.

L. l. TUTTI-E STILL ADJUSTMENT FOR IATTERN FITTING FOR MULTIPLE PRINTING MACHINES Filed Dec. 18, 1929 3 Sheets$heet '2 mwfw 66f W? L. l. TUTTLE Nov. 8, 1932.

STILL ADJUSTMENT FOR PATTERN FITTING FOR MULTIPLE PRINTING MACHINES Filed Dec. 18, 1929 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented Nov. 8, 1932 LEONARD I. rnr'rrn, or :BUcHAnan; NEW our;

STILL ADJUSTMENT FOR PATTERN FITTING FOR IEULTI PLE PRINTING 1VIAG.'E II1\TES Application filed December 18, 1929. Serial No. 14,886.

This invention relates to the art of printing machines of the multicolor type, or machines having a plurality of printing rolls, and has particular reference to improvements in the patternfitting and adjusting gear of such machines.

Machines of the type to which my invention has been primarily adapted are used for printing designs and patterns on continuous strips of oilcloth, silk, cotton piece goods, wallpaper and other desirable materials. In general, the machine comprises a master roll of large diameter around which the material to be printed is fed, and a plurality of pattern or printing rolls of smaller diameter arranged about the circumference of the masterjroll at and below its horizontal diameter. The printing rolls are positively rotated and each carries a part of the composite design which is transferred in colors to the material on themaster roll. Great trouble has been experienced in maintaining a true, or positive, registration of the patterns or parts thereof carried by the printing rolls during the printing operation, this being due in large measure to the fact that the printing rolls must be adjusted while the machine is running, and frequently while running at full speed. In the machines now in use, various means have been employed for manipulating the printing rolls, including worm wheels and grip wheels adapted to be manipulated by hand. The worm wheel mechanism is highly objectionable, since, when it is turned on its axis, it is quite liable to cause the printing roll to be advanced or retarded in relation to the driving pinion indefinitely or inaccurately, and also because the adjustments are made by entering a pininto one of a series of openings in the collar of the worm, which is found to be difficult as well as dangerous to the operative because the latter is compelled to quickly enter the pin in a hole of small diameter which is rapidly shifting. IV hen one of the printing rolls is not registering properly, even an expert or skilled operator finds it difficult to make the proper adjustment, and he may make a number of attempts to bring about registration before he is successful. Thus, considerable wastage varying sizes of printingrolls.

of time also of material may result. It is also extremely dificult to procure fine adjustments While the machine is in operation, since different designs and printing rolls of varying diameter, are used, necessitating driving pinions ofdifferent sizes. With the worm wheel type of pattern roll driving means, it is impossible to disassemble the out practically rebuilding the parts, requiring complete units to be kept on hand for all the application filed by me on the 9th day of August, 1929, serial number 3%,620, I have simplified the problem of pattern adjustment and registration-in great measure by providing grip wheels adapted to be manipulated by the operative while the machine is running, and this form of mechanism-has several advantages; but, requires considerable skill and accuracy on the part of the operative.

sensitiveness in manipulating the --grip Wheel for both advancing and retarding the pattern rolls While the machine is in Operation.

By my present invention, I have provided a means answering to the expression still adjustment for the pattern rolls, by which the operative, even though unskilled, can

and the exercise of a high degree of touchpinions from their mountingsor centers with- In a prior make adjustmentsofthe pattern rolls relatively, and relatively to the sheet which is being printed, quickly and with little or no difiiculty, and among the objects of my present invention may be noted the following: To provide adjusting means for the printing rolls located at a convenient place for the operator to make the adjustments with his eyes on the work; to provide means by which a very fast and simple adjustment of the printing rolls can be made requiring only that the operator shall insert a pin in a hole in the head of a still latter fractionally to either the right or left,

thus causing the printing roll to rotate so as to properly fit the pattern; to provide a means for the purposes stated in the forescrew and turn the going by which the adjustments can be made at any and all speeds of the machine and with great accuracy and perfectsafety to the operator; to provide a means which has a suiliciently wide range of adjustments, permitting the operator to rotate the print rolls fractionally while the machine is running, thereby making it possible to register any print roll relatively to the others and relatively to the pattern parts being printed; to provide an adjusting means for the purposes stated in the foregoing which is dependable and which will not change or shift during the operation of the machineas the resultof the operation orvibrations of thelatter; to provide an adjusting means of the character stated by which, when adjustments and registration of the several printing rolls have been produced, further adjustments can be produced without expensive index gears, since the gears required to be used for different sizes of print rolls are merely plain gears ofthe proper size for the purpose; to

provide means in machines of-the type noted in the foregoing by which, when it becomes necessary to read ust the patterns with the machine running at full speed, adjustments can be made without reducingthe speed of the-machine, withgreat' facility, and with perfect safety; and to provide an adjusting means which is so simple and accurate that the gearing thereof may be covered or guarded so as to make the machine perfectly safe for the operator as well as others working about and upon the machine.

l/Vith the foregoing objects in view, and others which will be noted during the course of this description, my invention consists in the parts, features, elements and combinations thereof hereinafter described and claimed.

In order thatmy invention may be clearly understood, '1 have provided drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a view showing in endelevation a multicolor printing machine, having a plurality of still adjusting means for the pattern rolls constructed in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged view, in central, longitudinal section substantially on the line 22 of Figure 1, through one of the pattern adjusting means, and showing related parts;

Figure 3 is an enlarged view in side elevation, and partly broken away and in section, of a part of the elements shown in Figure 2, the view being taken substantially froma position indicated by the line 33 in Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 in top plan of the structure thereof and ed operative parts. 7

Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates the frame of the machine which, of course, is suitably constructed for the purposes of a machine adapted to print multicolored registered patterns upon long strips of material, and, for the purposes of my invention, the frame of the machine is not shown in details, but such parts as are shown are indicated in most instances by the numeral 1. The frame is provided with bearings in which the shaft 2 rotates, said shaft carrying the master gear wheel 3, which in this instance of my invention is of considerably less diameter than the master roll 1, mounted independently on shaft 2, and around which travels the material to be printed, as usual. A shaft 5 journaled'in'the frame carries a pinion 6, which meshes with the master-gear 3 and is driven by a gear 7 mounted on a shaft 8 journaledin the frame below the shaft 5, the gear 7 being driven, by usual mechanism, in the direction of the arrow shown adjacent thereto so that the master gear 3 is driven in the same direction as indicated by the arrow applied thereto in Figure 1. The master gear 3 meshes with a still adjusting pinion 9 forming part of one of the pattern roll adjusting devices constituting my invention. It will be seen that the pattern rolls 10 are geared at 11 to the still adjusting gear 9, and that said pattern rolls and their adjusting means are located equidistantly about the axis of the master roll 1 at and below its horizonal diameter.

The details of construction of the still adjusting mechanism are clearly shown in the enlarged views of Figures 2, 3 and 4:. Therein the aXis 12 of the pattern roll and its gear is shown extended to accommodate and provide for the still adjusting gear so that the latter may be in train with the gear 11 and the master gear 3. Suitable webs 13, carried by the frame of themachine, support the shafts of the pattern rolls, and also support thebracket of the still adjusting means, a portion of said bracket indicated at 14: having bolted to it at 15 a carrier plate 16 provided with a threaded aperture in which operates a screw 17. The.plate 16 has slidably mounted therein an angular support 18, over the top part of which the head 19 of the screw operates, said head being provided with a plural ity of radial apertures 20 adapted for the insertion of a pin for adjusting the screw. Below the top ofthe support 18 the screw is provided with adjusting and jamb nuts 21 whereby, when adjustments are made, they can be held to avoid the shifting of the pattern rolls relatively to the master roll. The plate 16 is provided with a dovetail groove 22, in which a dovetailed rib 23 is slidable, said rib being part of the support 18 and carrying an outstanding pin 2e on which is mounted the adjusting pinion 9 which meshes with the master gear 3 and the print roll'actuating gear 11,

and which adjusting pinion is normally located diametrically between the gears 3 and 11, and is adapted to be shifted in right lines relatively to and between said gears. For anti-frictional purposes and easy running operation of pinion 9, roller bearings 25 are fractional turn of the screw 17 which accomplished easily and quickly without fear interposed between the pinion 9 and its supporting pin 24, said bearings being held from longitudinal displacement by collar 29 in turn held in place by a head 30 screwed on the end of the pin 24c. To frictionally hold the dovetailed rib 23 in its guideway 22, a'shim 26 is placed in the guideway 22 for engagement with the rib 23 and is there held by an adjustingscrew 27. As will be seen, a slight shift of the pinion 9 between the gears 3 and 11 will cause the latter to be shifted relatively to the master gear 3, and will cause the pattern roll 10 to be shifted relatively to the master roll 4, to set the pattern roll properly with reference to the master roll and the patterns which have been impressed upon the material in its travel around the master roll. And it will be noted that such adjustment requires only a can be of interference with any of the parts of the machine, regardless of the speed of the parts of the latter, and that the adjustments can be made at any time and at full speed of the machine without the least dilficulty. An adj ust- V ment of the screw 17 will cause the slide 23 to shift the pinion 9, and the shifting of the pinion 9 causes the gear 11 to rotate as described because the master gear 3 is positively driven, and cannot be affected in its operation by any adjustment given to the pinion 9. It will be noted that the adjustments are always in a rightline, and that, in consequence, the gear 11 can be readily shifted either clockwise or counterclockwise, according to the requirements of the pattern being made or printed upon the material; and it will also be noted that, when an adjustment of a pattern roll is once made, it will not shift until the pinion 9 is positively shifted according to requirement As the result of the structure of the adjusting means, the latter will remain accessible to the operative although the screw 17,

the pinion 9 and other parts of the still adjusting means may be entirely covered or enclosed by a guard 28, which is only conventionally shown for the purpose of illustrating the presence of the latter, and the fact that it may be employed as an enclosure for the still adjusting means, leaving only the head of the screw and the overhanging top of the member 18 of the adjusting means exposed.

The details of my invention having thus been described, the mode of operation will be readily understood with the additional brief statement as follows: The master gear 3 turns on a shaft 2 located in the center of the machine, and is driven in the direction opposite the flow of the goodsaround the master printing roll 4. This is due to the direction of movement,counterclockwise,of the driving gear 7; and therefrom it results the direction of the arrow of Figure 1.

Generally speaking, the master gear. 3 is utilized to link together all the print rolls through the medium of one of my still justing devices, in consequence of which the master gear drives all of the print rolls atthe same speed with possibilities of adjustments backand forth either primarily before the machine is started inoperation or, after the machine has been started in operation, and

regardless of the speed of the latter, when and as adjustments of any one of the print rolls is found to be necessary, Hence, all the print rolls can be accurately adjusted relatively and relatively to the master roll,

and if, by any mischance, a further adjustment of one or more of the print rolls be comes necessary, the feat can be accomplished easily, quickly, without danger to the operative, and by an unskilled operative, even with the machine running at full speed. f

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to. secure. by Letters Patent is:

1. An adjusting means. for, multicolor printing machines comprising a pinion and means for shifting the same bodily perpendicularly relatively to its axis. I 1V 2. An adjusting means for multicolor printing machines comprising a pinion and means including a rotary device and a re ciprocating device for adjusting said pinion bodily perpendicularly relatively to its axis.

3. An adjusting means for multicolor printing machines comprising a pinion and 0 interacting means for converting rotary motion into right-line reciprocations for bodily adjusting the pinion perpendicularly relatively to its axis.

4. In combination with the master roll and pattern roll of a multicolor printingmachine, means interposed between the'two rolls for adjusting the one circularly relatively to the other, said means including a train of gearing, and means for shifting one member of said train bodily relatively to its axis.

5. An adjusting means for multicolor printing machines comprising a pinion, a support on which the'pinion rotates, and

perpendicularly means for shifting said pinion bodily perpendicularly relatively to its axis.

6. A printing machine having, in combination, a master roll of predetermined diameter, a master gear of lesser diameter, means for actuating the latter, rolls about said master roll, and right-line adjustable means between the master gear and printing rolls enabling the latter to be adjusted circularly relatively to the master roll.

a plurality of printing '4- ..'1,.sse,922

7. A printing roll adjusting means comprising a rotary pinion, a support for said pinion, an adjusting screw, a stationary member in which the screw is: adapted to turn,

and means between the screw and support adapted to impart bodily reciprocations to the pinion perpendicularly relatively to its axis.

8. A printing machine havinggin combination, a pattern roll, gearing for driving the same, a master roll and a gear for driving the same, the said gearing being arranged in a plane parallel with the two rolls, an adjusting pinion for the pattern roll inserted between thetwo gears and movable in a right line at an angle to the said plane thereof. 9; In combination with the pattern rolls of multicolor printing machines, an adjusting means for regulating the action of said rolls comprising an element and means for adjusting said element to shift it'bodily perpendicularly to its axis and tangentially to the circumferences of said rolls. p

10. In combination with the master roll and printing roll of a printing machine, an adjusting gear and means for supporting the same between the two rolls, and means for shifting the gear bodily relatively to the 30 axis of said rolls. j

11. In combination with the pattern rolls of a printing machine, and adjusting means for the roll including a gear and means operating to shift the gear bodily perpendicularly relatively to its axisand tangentially to the circumference of the pattern roll.

LEONARD 1. TUTTLEQ 

